Two sites for potential emergency housing are set to be announced Thursday, nearly three months after that measure was approved by Calgary city council.
Initially, Calgary’s Chief Administrative Officer David Duckworth reported Dec. 6 to the city’s Executive Committee, during his Q3-Q4 report that the city will still in the site selection process.
During the September debate on Calgary’s Housing Strategy, Mayor Jyoti Gondek put forward an amendment that directed administration to find a site that could help house up to 240 families currently without a place to live. That was later amended by Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp for city administration to find two sites.
Media learned shortly after the Dec. 6 meeting that sites have been selected and will be announced later this week. Then an Expression of Interest (EOI) from non-profit social agency providers will be launched.
“The real estate development team, working with the housing solutions team and others that have knowledge, insights, interests in various parcels, have been going through the inventory of city lands to identify what would be appropriate parcels,” said Community Services General Manager Katie Black, after the meeting.
They had to sift through available land to find parcels that met a certain criterion. That included proper ingress/egress, land uses, transportation access, and other services.
At the time this was initially discussed, Mayor Jyoti Gondek expressed her desire for a quick solution to help these families in need.
“I am looking forward to the report coming back from administration about which two sites it is and how quickly we can get going,” she said at the time.
“We are in a crisis situation and urgent action is something that we’re expecting.”
Not as urgent as expected: Coun. Sharp
Coun. Sharp, outside council chambers on Wednesday, said the three-month timeline throws into question the idea of urgency that was expressed coming out of that September meeting on the housing strategy.
“I was under the impression that we’ve already would have had these two sites, and they would have been allocated to those providers by the end of this year,” Coun. Sharp said.
“It’s a bit of a disappointment considering what we promised Calgarians on the housing crisis, on the housing affordability crisis that we’re in as well, and providing these families roofs over their heads.”
Sharp said she now assumes the priority will be to get these sites up and running by the start of Q1.
GM Black said the city was moving swiftly. After the announcement, an EOI will go out so housing providers can examine the sites and consider whether it’s a model they would want to bid on.
“Time is very much of the essence. I know the team is leaning hard to move all of these steps along swiftly,” Black said.
Ward 11 Coun. Kourtney Penner said it was important to not get ahead of themselves in this situation. They had to spend time to find the right land for the emergency housing. Though the city has a sizeable land portfolio, not every site would be suitable for this use, Penner said.
“There’s a lot of factors in identifying the site. So, as we run through the list, it’s going to be about making sure that they’re well equipped and well prepared to then provide housing quickly,” she said.
“Instead of putting the horse before the cart, it’s like doing the work to make sure we have the best identified sites.”
